Offers more than 3,000. but cannot find employees: there is a great shortage of these specialists in Lithuania

Money – big, working – no

The Fintech sector in Lithuania is developing at a tremendous rate. In 2018, the number of companies of this type in the country was around 170, according to the latest data, the number far exceeded 200 and reaches just over 230.

With the rapid expansion and creation of new businesses, the sector says it faces some challenges and while Fintech employees earn an average of € 3,056 before taxes in the country, while the average salary of the country before taxes is € 1,352.7, the sector faces a huge shortage of workers.

“There is a shortage of employees in the Fintech sector, but there is a special shortage in terms of the need for specialists in prevention of money laundering (AML),” said Andrius Merkelis, director of the AML group in the Fintech Hub LT association, to Delfi.

According to him, in general, the order to prevent money laundering dates back about 20 years, so this is not new, but over time more and more financial technology companies have emerged that need these types of specialists, as well as more stringent requirements for companies. .

“Sanctions on companies have been toughened, there have been a series of scandals and all these things have caused more attention to be paid to this sector.

The fines, which used to be in the hundreds of thousands, can now be billions in the United States and millions in Europe. This encourages companies to dedicate more funds and measures to the prevention of money laundering, which means that the sector also needs more employees.

Also in recent years a large number of new market participants, Fintech companies, that is, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, etc. have appeared in Lithuania. ”He said, assuring that if dozens of money laundering prevention specialists were obviously needed, now their hundreds and, in some cases, thousands are needed, since every fintech company must have at least some of those employees who provide measures against money laundering.

“Since the Fintech sector began to develop actively a few years ago, institutions that train specialists do not have time to reorient and prepare them so quickly. I think this is another new trend, because if a few years ago those professionals did not need so many, now they need many and fast.

It must also be borne in mind that the people who work in this field must have both certain skills and a certain background of knowledge, experience, an impeccable reputation. Some companies want education to be oriented towards law or finance, but this is not necessary, ”said A. Merkel.

Although the average salary in the Fintech sector, as announced, before taxes is just over 3,000. But the spokesperson said the amounts vary depending on how much experience the employee has.

“A person who comes with an international certificate, many years of experience, can earn well above the average,” he added.

It is true that, according to A. Merkel, in Lithuania several foreigners work in positions of specialists in the prevention of money laundering.

“There are not many, I would not say that not even half, but it shows once again that our sector and salaries are competitive. “We mainly employ employees from Europe, France, the UK and people from Ukraine,” he said.

Looking for 500 employees

Danske Bank is also currently looking for employees. According to the company, the company currently has more than 500 vacancies, which is double the usual.

“Currently, we have almost double the vacancies because we are expanding some teams with new content positions and completely new roles have emerged,” said Indrė Sakalauskienė, Human Resources Manager at Danske Bank in Lithuania.

He said that there is currently an intensive search for financial markets and investment professionals, analysts, human resources, cybersecurity, cloud professionals.

“We are noticing that a number of companies in the financial and IT sector are growing as fast as we are at the moment,” he added, assuring that there is real competition for talent in the market and that companies with employees are reluctant. to run.

Still, saying that it is impossible to find employees in the market at the moment, he said he could not, but assured that the effort to find talent today must be put much more than before.

“We can, we can and we contract, but the amount of energy required to invest in it is incomparable to what it was before and it is incomparable in the market,” said I. Sakalauskienė.

The lawsuit is enduring and sends a message to young people

According to Andrius Francas, a partner at the Alliance for Recruitment, companies currently operating in the country generally lack IT specialists, electronic engineers, accounting specialists, and Scandinavian-speaking specialists.

According to the statement, the shortage of IT specialists is felt due to the active digitization, accounting and Scandinavian specialists in Lithuania.

“Both the IT and Fintech sectors are growing rapidly. And with us young people do not choose these studies so much, how much they can choose, how much potential there is in the market.

Mistakes are made in grades 9-10. “Young people choose to study easier things in school and naturally they lack the knowledge to pass exams,” he said.

According to Franco, the shortage of these workers is not a short-term problem. They will be missing in the long run.

“We are not going to meet the demand for those employees soon, because the entire IT sector in Lithuania is growing and growing, because services are exported. It will be that growth will continue, just maybe not so fast due to the lack of those talents. .

We have a new trend that Belarusian IT companies are developing in Lithuania and hiring Lithuanians here. Therefore, we will not solve anything in the near future and the outlook is very good for those who now choose to study, ”he said.

Mr. Franc also hints that retraining can solve the problem, but it must be done in a very clever way.